1 Watt Headlight USB C Rechargeable

Do you always need more light ?

I do ! Always fixing stuffs , watching which kind of screw is required to open this vacuum cleaner.... you know the story right ?

So let's use a battery you can find everywhere ( usually disposable vapes thrown away with their charger included , what a gift ! ) and have a visit to the local Fablab to laser cut and assemble all of that !

You will need :

1. A4 sheet of thin wood ( 2.5 mm is good )
2. A switch
3. 4 pieces of wire ( I pre cut 30 mm long electronic wire )
4. 1 W LED
5. 1.5 Ohm or 3 Ohm resistor
6. Heatsink for the LED
7. Head band of your choice
8. Paint if you want a specific design

Tools :

1. Cutting pliers
2. Soldering iron and soldering tin
3. Glue
4. Laser cutting machine 5W diode is enough
5. A pair of hands or anything to help moving things will help

I would advice to start laser cutting everything so you can have a look at the rest of this instructable while it's cutting everything.

Files are here in SVG and DXF if you have any problem opening them , feel free to contact me I'll help as much as I can.

I used 2 colors :

1. Blue for the box containing the light ( the background )
2. Brown for the top layer

Notice : You can also do one layer , super simple and efficient.

This circuit is basic : one battery , one switch, one resistor , one LED.

To be said I used a 3.7 Volt battery , and doing the calculations I had the choice between brightness or autonomy.

If you want the LED to be bright for 2 hours use a 1.5 Ohm , 1/2 Watt resistor.

If you want the LED to be less bright for 3 hours use a 3 Ohm , 1/2 Watt resistor.

3 Ohm is also safer as the battery can be 4.2 Volt ( and not 3.7 Volt ) when it is fully charged.

Start assembling the bow , the bottom face and side face first.

Then , before it's too late assemble the heatsink on the LED and the switch in its place.

Following the drawing of step 2 you can now use your best soldering iron to make good connections !

If you don't know how to solder , you can always ask an electronic shop around or visit a fablab to ask it is full of good people and knowledge , and trust me if I could do this, you can do it too !

It is time to close the box .... no no no , we first have the pleasure to try the light before anything else.

So first check if the magic switch works. Yep ! Yep ! 1 Watt is bright , so wait a bit as you might have seen a very good flash now... congratulate yourself and put all of this is the box !

Now you have a working light , why not making even more beautiful ?

in the SVG and DXF files , there are some covers so you can have a beautiful 2 layers design.

This is 100% optional and even without a second layer it is always cool to have a headlight anyways.

Now you can add the legs of the headlight and the elastic band of your choice.

There are 2 ways to assemble it , one easy , one less easy ( but adjustable ).

So I have let the drawing in the files so that you can adjust the size of the head band if you want , if not , just pass the band through the holes of the support and put the legs in those same holes and glue.

Is should be pretty tight and adding a bit of glue will make it super strong !

And there it is !

You made an awesome headlight that will help you working on your projects , seeing in the darkness when you need, thanks to a simple battery from a disposable object and a powerful LED.

I wish you'll have as much fun as me doing it , and enjoying your results each time you use it ;)